News

The return of Royal Institution Primary Maths Masterclasses has been a hit with pupils! 32 pupils from 12 primary schools took part in sessions held at the Inspiration Trust centre in Norwich. Pupils travelled from across Norfolk to attend the sessions, which ran over a five-week period.  

The masterclasses provided fun and engaging sessions to encourage pupil's interest in maths, with many lessons led by maths students at Sir Isaac Newton Sixth Form.  

Many advanced topics were covered. The opening session, led by Amy Hooker of the Royal Institute, introduced pupils to parabolas and related this to architecture. Pupils finished up the session by making parabolic string art. Another session included a lesson on topology which involved creating knots with ropes, with the added challenge that the pupils couldn’t let go of the rope! Sir Isaac Newton Sixth Form students explained that this aspect of maths is used by surgeons to help them avoid cutting veins and arteries. The link between maths and engineering was explored when pupils were tasked with building a bridge made out of spaghetti! Pupils worked in teams to come up with designs that could hold the most amount of weight possible before breaking. 

Pupils also created hexaflexagons, built contraptions to protect an egg being dropped from a height (thankfully they used plastic eggs!), faced the challenge of the ‘Seven Bridges of Königsberg’ before learning about vertices, discovered Pascal’s Triangle and fractals, learnt about magic squares and played a game of ‘Plates of Pi(e)’! 

Pupils feedback was overwhelmingly positive, with many saying that they wanted to do more sessions, and were grateful for having made new friends with a shared passion for maths.  

Tom Marjoram, Maths Standards Lead for KS5 said  

“It was great to host the Royal Institution Primary Masterclasses once again and to see so many enthusiastic mathematicians from primary schools in Norfolk. The Sixth Formers from Sir Isaac Newton have delivered fantastic sessions on a wide variety of mathematical themes, and I know that both the primary and sixth form students have gained so much from the experience.” 

All pupils received a certificate and a goody bag for their hard work, and the Year 12s could take pride in having developed their leadership and communication skills. The dedication and care Inspiration Trust staff have put into these masterclasses has resulted in the pupils understanding how fun maths can be and inspired them to look at maths in exciting new ways.